3 Applying the Latest Oracle Fusion Middleware Patch Set

This chapter describes how to patch your existing Oracle Fusion Middleware software to the latest version. The specific patching instructions you follow depend on the version of your current software. Instructions in this chapter are provided for software versions 11.1.1.2.0 and later.

Note:

The following pre-patching procedures must be completed before you can update your software to Release 11.1.1.7.0:

Perform any necessary post-patching tasks (for example, starting the servers and processes in a domain, starting Oracle instances, running scripts or modifying configuration files). The tasks that need to be performed will vary depending on the version of your existing software and components configured in your environment. Refer to the tables in the following sections for details:

3.3 Before You Begin

Before you begin the patching procedures discussed in this chapter, complete any applicable pre-patching tasks outlined in this section. The "Special Instructions" sections in this chapter will help you determine if there are any special pre-patching tasks required for your environment.

3.3.1 Special Instructions for Patching Oracle WebCenter

The procedures you need to follow for patching your existing Oracle WebCenter software depend on your current software version. Chapter 6, "Patching Oracle WebCenter Portal" describes the procedures for patching the various versions of Oracle WebCenter. For patching Oracle WebCenter, you can directly navigate to Chapter 6 and follow the instructions there. Many of the steps listed in refer back to this and other chapters of this guide.

To prevent compatibility issues with other Fusion Middleware products, Oracle recommends that Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer be installed in its own Middleware home directory that it does not share with any other Oracle Fusion Middleware products. For more information on the compatibility and interoperability of Fusion Middleware products, see the Oracle Fusion Middleware Interoperability and Compatibility Guide.

This Oracle Fusion Middleware patch set provides Oracle Portal 11.1.1.6.0 which is the latest version of Oracle Portal. The Patch Set Assistant for this release upgrades the PORTAL schema to this version. As a result, a schema update is not required if Oracle Portal 11.1.1.6.0 has already been installed.

3.3.3 Special Instructions for Patching Oracle Identity and Access Management

3.3.4 Special Instructions for Patching a Distributed Environment

If you are running your products in a distributed environment (for example, you have Managed Servers running in multiple domains on multiple systems) and you have set up a shared Middleware home on a shared network drive mounted to each machine that is part of your domain, then this patching procedure only needs to be done once (see Section 2.3.3, "Patching in a Distributed Environment").

If your distributed environment has a separate Middleware home on each system, then this patching procedure must be repeated for each domain on each system.

More information about distributed topologies can be found in the Enterprise Deployment Guide for your specific product.

3.3.5 Special Instructions for Patching Oracle SOA Suite

Before upgrading from a previous release to 11.1.1.7.0, make sure all Edit sessions in SOA Composer are committed or reverted.

SOA Composer provides DT@RT functionality to edit rules dictionaries after deployment. After upgrading to the latest version, all uncommitted sessions in SOA Composer will be lost or there can be issues accessing the edit sessions. This is because the MDS sandboxes (used for handling sessions) are not updated by the patch set.

To commit or revert the sessions:

Log in to the SOA Composer (/soa/composer) as any user with active sessions.

After installing the latest version of Oracle WebLogic Server (version 10.3.6), you must install the required patches as described on the "Known Issues for Oracle SOA Products and Oracle AIA Foundation Pack" page on Oracle Technology Network at:

3.4.1 Reviewing System Requirement and Certification

Before you begin to update your software, you should make sure that your system environment and configuration meet the minimum requirements for the software you want to install in order to perform the update. This section contains links to several key pieces of documentation you should review:

3.4.1.1 System Requirements and Specifications

For certification information, refer to the System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Fusion Middleware 11gR1 document on the Oracle Fusion Middleware Supported System Configurations page at the following URL:

3.4.1.3 Upgrading the Embedded JDK in 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.7.0)

Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.7.0) does not include an updated version of Oracle WebLogic Server; this release is supported for use with Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.6, which was released with Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.6.0).

As a result, some Oracle Fusion Middleware products may require a JDK version higher than the one that is embedded with Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.6. In such cases, you must manually upgrade your JDK to the supported version.

Apply the FMW Patch Set before updating the JDK used with Oracle WebLogic Server 10.3.6, in order to ensure a certified and latest WLS/JDK/FMW combination.

Oracle Java SE (JDK/JRE) may be installed as part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware (FMW) 11g product or installed on your system beforehand. In either case, it is supported to update this Java SE (or JDK/JRE if separate) to the latest release, as long as it remains on a certified version.

Read "Patch Set Interoperability" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Interoperability and Compatibility Guide before you begin your patching process. This document contains important information regarding the ability of Oracle Fusion Middleware products to function with previous versions of other Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle, or third-party products. This information is applicable to both new Oracle Fusion Middleware users and existing users who are upgrading their existing environment.

After stopping the servers and processes, back up your Middleware home directory (including the Oracle home directories inside the Middleware home), your local Domain home directory, your local Oracle instances, and also the Domain home and Oracle instances on any remote systems that use the Middleware home.

Backing up your environment before applying your patch is an important step in the patching process. If your patch set installation is unexpectedly interrupted, or if you choose to cancel out of the installation before it is complete, you may not be able to install the patch unless you restore your environment to the previous configuration before running the Installer again.

For more information on backing up your environment, see "Backing Up Your Environment" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.

3.4.5 Backing Up Your Database and Database Schemas

If your database schemas require updating, you should also back up your database before you begin the patching procedure. Make sure this back up includes the schema version registry table, as each Fusion Middleware schema has a row in this table. The name of the schema version registry table is SYSTEM.SCHEMA_VERSION_REGISTRY$. Refer to your database documentation for instructions on how to do this.

If you run the Patch Set Assistant to update an existing schema and it does not succeed, you must restore the original schema before you can try again. Make sure you back up your existing database schemas before you run the Patch Set Assistant.

3.4.6 Backing Up Additional Configuration Information

Depending on your specific environment, you might also need to back up the following before performing any patching procedures:

Back Up Configurations and Stores

Each WebLogic Server domain must be updated using the upgradeOpss() WLST command. Before running the upgradeOpss() command, make sure that you backup the store to be updated. In case of a LDAP store, backup all data under the root node of the store (which is specified as a property of the store in the configuration file). For example, to backup OID as LDAP store, do the following:

Do an ldifwrte from the root (basedn="") to get an ldif backup with operational attributes (which could be imported with bulkload restore option later if required). For example, ldifwrite connect=oiddb basedn="" ldifile="/tmp/ldifwriteOfAllEntries.ldif"

If you are using OmniPortlet and WebClipping customizations, and they are being used with a file-based preferences store, you must save your customizations.

Save XEngine Customizations for Oracle B2B

This procedure is needed only if you use custom XEngine configurations in cases where B2B server is integrated with B2B EDI endpoints. In such cases, all B2B domains created from the same installation share the a single XEngine configuration stored within a single directory. This directory must be backed up prior to patching, and then restored after patching is complete.

If you are updating your Oracle Identity Federation to the latest release, you should back up any custom JSPs before patching to the latest version. The patching process will overwrite the JSPs included in the oif.ear file.

After the patching process is complete, you should restore your custom JSPs.

3.4.7 Updating Oracle WebLogic Server

If Oracle WebLogic Server is already installed on your system, make sure you have updated Oracle WebLogic Server to either version 10.3.6 or 10.3.5 (both are supported in Release 11.1.1.7.0) using the Upgrade installer.

If you want to run the Upgrade installer in silent mode (for example, you have an environment where you need to patch multiple instances of Oracle WebLogic Server), see the instructions in "Running the Installation Program in Silent Mode" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server.

Note:

If you have Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Release 1 (11.1.1.1.0), and you are installing Oracle WebLogic Server for the first time to upgrade to Release 1 (11.1.1.2.0) or later, see the "Installation Overview" in the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle WebLogic Server.

3.4.8 Renaming the emCCR File for Silent Patching

If you are patching your software in silent mode, you may encounter the following error messages:

"SEVERE:Values for the following variables could not be obtained from the command line or response file(s):
MYORACLESUPPORT_USERNAME(MyOracleSupportUsername)"

To work around this issue, rename the ORACLE_HOME/ccr/bin/emCCR (on UNIX operating systems) or ORACLE_HOME\ccr\bin\emCCR (on Windows operating systems) file.

3.5 Downloading the Installer

3.5.1 About the Installers Used for Patching

The installers you use to apply the latest Oracle Fusion Middleware patch sets vary in their behavior and capabilities, depending upon the product you are using. Before you begin the patching process, review Table 3-2 for information about the types of installers and what to expect when you run the installer to apply the latest patch set.

Table 3-2 Summary of the Oracle Fusion Middleware Installers Used to Apply the Latest Patch Set

Products

Type and Behavior of the Installer

Oracle Application Developer Runtime

Oracle SOA Suite

Oracle Service Bus

Oracle WebCenter Portal

Oracle WebCenter Content

These installers are full installers that can also function as update installers. You can use them to update an existing 11g Release 1 Oracle home, or you can use them to install a new, complete Oracle home.

Oracle Identity Management

Oracle Web Tier

Oracle Business Intelligence

These installers are full installers that can also function as update installers. They can be used to update an existing 11g Release 1 Oracle home, or they can be used to install a new, complete Oracle home.

These installers also offer a configuration option. When using them to apply a patch set, you must select the option to install the software only. Do not select the option to configure the software. The domain you are patching is already configured and does not require any reconfiguration.

Oracle Forms, Reports and Discover

Note that Oracle Portal will remain 11g Release 11.1.1.6.0 as it is not being updated in this release.

Depending on your system environment and product you are updating, you may be prompted to provide the location of a JRE/JDK on your system when you start the installer. When you installed Oracle WebLogic Server, a JRE was installed in the jdk160_version directory inside the Middleware home; you can use this location to start the installer.

If you do not have Oracle WebLogic Server installed on your system, you can use the JDK in the jdk directory inside the Oracle home.

Make sure you specify the absolute path to your JRE/JDK location; relative paths are not supported.

3.6.2 Applying the Patch Set

After you have started the Installer, follow the instructions on the screen to apply the patch set to your existing Middleware home.

Note:

If your domain includes multiple host computers, you must run the Installer separately on each host to update the software on that host.

As you review each screen of the installer, note that there are two significant differences between applying a patch set and installing software for the first time:

When you are applying a patch set, you must identify an existing Middleware home on the Specify Installation Location screen.

If you are installing Oracle Identity Management, Oracle Business Intelligence, or Oracle Web Tier, then you must perform a software only install and select the existing Middleware home and Oracle home you want to patch. There is no need to configure or re-configure your existing software.

Table 3-3 provides a summary of the typical installation screens you will see when you are applying a patch set to an existing Middleware home.

Note:

Oracle Fusion Middleware products in this release can be updated with their usual product installer.

3.9.1 Verifying the Upgrade Log

View the log file located in the MW_HOME/oracle_common/upgrade/logs (on UNIX operating systems) or MW_HOME\oracle_common\upgrade\logs (on Windows operating systems) directory for details about the upgrade.

3.9.2 Verifying the Domain Server Logs

Check the domain server logs, which are located in the servers directory inside the domain home directory. For example, on UNIX systems:

MW_HOME/user_projects/domains/domain_name/servers/server_name

On Windows systems:

MW_HOME\user_projects\domains\domain_name\servers\server_name

3.9.3 Verifying OPMN Status

Run the opmnctl status command from the INSTANCE_HOME/bin (on UNIX operating systems) or INSTANCE_HOME\bin (on Windows operating systems) directory in your instance home location. The example below shows the output on a UNIX system: